Hi there! I love your work and I think you are just so talented. I'm starting art school in the fall and was wondering if you had any advice. Did you go to school for art, and what was your experience like?
Hello! I’m sorry, you asked this a million years ago and have probablystarted art school by now!
I did get a degree in Fine Art, concentration in Graphic Design. I just wentto a state university which had pros and cons, pros being I graduated without too much debt and had a good all-around “university” experience, cons being the classes selection was limited (I can only look at the classes offered at RISD or MICA with great envy) and the school doesn’t offer the connections a prestigious art institute can.
My only two Cs in all my college years were in Drawing if you can believe it XD. I had this awful foundations drawing professor who took it upon himself to be a “gate-keeping” of the art department. My drawing class shrank to half its size after the midterm review because he told so many kids they weren’t cut out for art and they dropped out of the program. He nearly told me the same, telling me I was too slow at drawing and my art was too flat. Fortunately, I had a really encouraging painting professor the same semester, so I pretty much blew off my drawing professor and gladly accepted my C. (can’t really blame the professor for my other drawing C, that one was definitely on me XD)
The other negative of my art experience was there were 8 different concentrations within the art department (drawing, graphic design, sculpture,etc) and there was a LOT of petty infighting. Be it just bad blood between the teachers, or professors thinking their specialty was the real Fine Art. What sucked the most was it was really only the students that suffered from these ridiculous feuds.
Positives: learned a lot, made some of my best friends there, learned the value of critiquing and criticism, got a space to really go for it and experiment with mediums, and usually could dress like a slob and people didn’t care cuz I was “artistic” ;-)
Advice!
Get your shit done and get it done on time!: This is going to probably be the hardest thing, especially since you’ll have other classes, maybe you’ll have a job, not to mention procrastination and creative blockage loves to hit you hard at least once a term. (oh do I have stories about my procrastinating!) But really, work through it and get your projects done by the due dates. Good Enough and Finished is almost always better than Amazing and Unfinished.
And when you have critiques and feedback from your professors on your not-so-great stuff, don’t make excuses or get defensive, just listen and maybe even ask your peers and teachers for time management tips or how they work through creative lulls.
Get to know and be friendly with your professors and peers: This is the start of your creative network! Most jobs come from knowing people, and this very much includes art jobs. When you’re getting ready to graduate, get everyone’s email, Facebook, LinkedIn whatever, and say hey to them once in a while. This make it easier when you see a peer get an awesome job somewhere for you to break the ice and ask them about it (First rule of job hunting is you never lead off “I need a job”, and but it’s how it works!)
Experiment!: If you had to submit a portfolio to be accepted then you probably have your preferred mediums and probably have atleast started to develop a style, but, if a career in art is your goal, school is your best chance (possibly even your only chance!) to really delve into new and different mediums and styles without worrying about clients and money, so try everything!
Maybe sure to still do art for yourself, also find your non-art thing: Burnout can easily happen in school with all these projects and deadlines. So even if it’s just be some doodling between classes, do what you can to make art for yourself sometimes, make your fanart or OCs, draw in your favoritestyle with your favorite medium.
Also, find a non-art thing to do regularly: For me, it was Japanese language which was my minor, for you maybe it’s intermural sports, classes in something completely not art, joining a volunteer program, just find something that will get you out of art mode for a little while every week, it really will help you from getting sick of art.
Um, that’s about all I can think of at the moment, Work hard and kick ass!
